Connecting a computer to your DSLR camera opens up a brand-new world of opportunities in image making. You can gain greater control over your in-camera adjustments and get a more accurate picture of your lighting and setup. In this course, Rich Harrington introduces the tethered shooting workflow and shows how to connect your camera to a computer, an external monitor, and even an iPad or mobile device. He'll review the shooting environment, building the tethered station, software solutions for tethering, and wireless shooting with a CamRanger or GoPro camera. These techniques work well both in the studio and in the field, so you'll be prepared for all tethered shooting scenarios.

This course was created and produced by Rich Harrington. We are honored to host this content in our library.

Tethering with Phase One Capture One Pro

Let's take a look at a dedicated utility that'sall about capturing, it's Capture One from Phase One.And this program is designed to be usefulfor multiple types of cameras, and even cross-platform.Now, it's all about capturing the image, and it works really well.Let me walk you through a couple of things that it does.So, everything's connected.Let's take a look one tab over, and you'll see that it detectsthe camera.You're going to want to make sure that thatcamera is automatically attached ahead of time.And powered on.

Once you've done that note that youcan actually change the recording format right here.So if I want to switch to rar plus jpeg I can.I can also dial in changes to the ISO.If I click the button here, I can actually see a live-view simulation.In this case, the live view showsup as dark, Because I'm actually recording using strobes, But, otherwise, youcould actually adjust that, to see things a bit as you're working.Since this has a lot of shadows in it I'm going to up the ISO a little bit.I can also decide what light balance I wantto use, either auto or in this case flash.

I could take a test shot just to see how it's doing.And,a little bit bright.So let's take a look here at some of the camera controls.Well, that's because the shutter speed is totally off.So, let's set that to the correct two hundredths of a second here for Nikon.And we'll f-stop down a bit. Try about f-16.There we go. Let's take a test shot.And that's looking a heck of a lot better.In this case, the camera's leaning a little bit, but that's okay.I could easily go to the camera and compensate.One of the things you can't do is remotely control the tripod.

Let's just level that out a little.Go.There we go, that's looking great.Now you'll notice that I have complete control over the camera.And, much like before, you can actually name the session and thecounters, you could go ahead and specify where the files could be stored.So, you could choose a dedicated folder on a drive, and that allowsyou to navigate to an external drive if you'd like to tether that way.There we go. And let's do another test shot.Looking pretty good.Note here that I could see the exposure and it's letting me knowthat it thinks I'm just a tad overexposed here with the exposure evaluation.

But that's not too bad.With that bright white backdrop, it's going to skew it a bit.If I wanted to, I could use the exposure compensation here.That pushed it a little bit further. You see it's a bit brighter.Or we could compensate for overexposure. Andyou see that that pushed it down a bit.Let's zero that back out.And note here, that we can actually start to adjust the image.I could adjust the color temperature, to refine that,as well as put a little tint in there.I could do a black and white conversion, real quick, ifI want to see how it's going to look in grayscale print.

And I can come on over here, andmake either local adjustments, or work with thingslike the ability to actually assign lens profilecorrection based on the lens that you're using.Basic adjustments can be made over here in the histogram tab,allowing you to work with the overall brightness, contrast and saturation.And the ability to adjust the highlights independently, and lift up the shadows.That's definitely working for me, and let's just doan initial crop here to check it for the client.There we go.

That's going to work.I can see the comparison there between the images.Now the cool thinghere is not just that you can tether to a computer but you can be on set tethering.Allowing other people on set to see whats happening.To do this you need to go ahead and starta session between your computer and the iPads on set.They need to be on the same wireless network.So if I come back here to the second tab.Same one where we have controls for the camera, I can open up capture pilot.And what you want todo is give the server a name. You could assign a password if you want.

And tell it where to publish.In this case I'm just going to go to the mobile device.And I'll start up the image server.Note, there's an email button which you canclick, and it will automatically open up your emailclient and allow you to send an invite, includingthe ability for them to actually get the app.That makes it really easy to connect.So you just take out your iPad, install the app.and if you're onthe same WiFi network it's really pretty easy.But even if you're not, this can work remotely over the internet.So the client can be sitting in their conferenceroom looking at your images, while you're on site shooting.

But let's launch the app.And I see the local server. I can click that.Andit connects.Now as I'm onset taking pictures,they're going to automatically download to the app.There it is. And it transfers.The client can take a look at that. Actually pinch and zoom to move around.They can see a histogram.Measure color to set a new white balance.So the client can see the images as they download.They can even tap the screen and assign a star rating to the image.And you'll note back over here, it actually updated live.

This means I could be onset with an art director or client.They could be pinching and zooming, panning and looking around at the photos,and decide what's a four star, what's a five star, what's a two star.And then when they're ready, they just go to the next image andthey can mark that.And you don't have to wait for them to come and look over your shoulder.They can literally be sitting in the other room, browsing and doing what they want.And it works great.Now you're still maybe thinking I don't want that level of control.I don't need that. Well it's okay.

You can actually use the remote app too.So, if I want to move around and start to make adjustments, Idon't even have to run over to the camera to tether it.Nor do I have to make an adjustment here.See what I mean.I can go ahead here on the device, and actually just push the camera button.Andit brings up my camera controls.Now, you will need to do an optional in-app purchase for your camera.But you can make adjustments.If I want to adjust the shutter speedthere, back down to 200th, and there we go.200th and take the ISO up a little bit. Test shot.

There we go. And what I'm ableto do is actually make adjustments here right from the iPad to control the camera.Let's lower the f-stop a little bit.Take the ISO down.And you see we have a slightly shallower depth of field look.It's really quite nice to have that level of control.Right from the iPad I could be making modifications to my camerasetting wirelessly, and I could actually go through and rate the images.This is really nice because it just frees you up.You're essentially untethered from your tethered computer.

Now, you can't do this directly to the iPad.You do still need to have a computerin the mix.But what's nice here is that this can actually be done remotely.Let's go back here for a second.And we'll go to the server list and you see I can tap to add a new server.And this allows me to actually put the information in.Now, the good news is, is that this works great on a local network,but even remotely, you can go ahead and trigger it and invite people to it.There's lots of ways to pull this off,within the application, you can just click to send an email.

Which is great and that's just going to fire up inyour email application and send them to the right person.It looks pretty much like this.It's just going to give them a URLto click which will automatically launch the app.And it'll create a connection.And you see, there it is, I'm right into it.I didn't have to even guess which network or session to choose.With one click, I'm in it. And remember, if you actuallyhave bought the camera control pack and you wantit, just tap the camera button and you've got control.And you can actually trigger the camera as youneed it, making refined adjustments as you work through it.

And this is great.What I really love is the ability for myself or an assistant to start rating theimages and really pinch and zoom and see what's going on at a very fine level.It's sort of like having an actual light boxright on set, without having to wait for contactsheets or pulling out a loop.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

Already a member ?

Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
Learn more

Upgrade to our Annual Premium Membership today and get even more value from your lynda.com subscription:

“In a way, I feel like you are rooting for me. Like you are really invested in my experience, and want me to get as much out of these courses as possible this is the best place to start on your journey to learning new material.”— Nadine H.

Thanks for signing up.

We’ll send you a confirmation email shortly.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.

Keep up with news, tips, and latest courses with emails from lynda.com.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.